Very few people turned up at at Gujarat Unversity's convention centre for `Gujarat Sahityotsav-2016: Matru Bhasha Parva,' the first literary festival organised by the state government and Gujarat University. Rs 1 crore was spent on the event which was expected to bring writers under one roof. However, it apparently failed in its mission.

Around 600 people came to the literary festival against the total registration of around 2,400 people. In the afternoon session, very few people could be seen. Because of this, the authorities allowed people without invitation cards to attend the festival.

State ministers Bhupendrasinh Chudasma and Nanu Vanani, who were mentioned as chief guest and special guest, respectively, did not attend the event.

GU vice-chancellor M N Patel said food was arranged done for around 3,400 people but only 1,800 had meal at the literary festival.

Folk artists suffered due to mismanagement. "There was poor arrangement for folk artists. The performers of Lok-Dayro had no idea where they should go. State administrators failed to make proper arrangements for the artists," said a source.

Sources said GU's syndicate members were not invited to the literary festival.Harshad Patel, head of academic council of GU, was also not invited to the event.

GU authorities had earlier claimed that response to the festival would be good and that they had stopped new registrations due to the rush.

Neglect Of Procedure Led To GSEB Goof-up

Ahmedabad: 2 Jan 2016

Gujarat secondary and Higher Secondary Board (GSHSEB), failed to verify marks where it was required to do so, leading to publication of erroneous semester I results for class XI science stream. Though the board has since rectified its error, such goof-up would not have taken place, if the board had carried out verifications before declaring results -something it has been doing since 2008, but failed to do this year.

After facing a severe criticism for the goof-up, the state government has instructed the board to take action against the erring official responsible for it. The board has stripped examination controller V R Gosai of his powers as corrective measures. The board is likely to submit its report to the government by Saturday evening.

Sources in the board said that board officials have to verify the marks obtained by a student in the paper he had failed in, if he had scored above 80% in all other subjects. For example, the board should have verified the marks in Sanskrit of Parth Brahmbhatt, who had scored over 80% marks in Science and other subjects, but received only 20 marks in Sanskrit. Sources said that even the topper in semester I had initially failed in Sanskrit.

If the verification was done according to the rules, then the goof-up in answer keys would have been detected early preventing the publication of erroneous results. The issue surfaced only because all the 57,000 students had failed in Sanskrit subject. Officials said that had this number been 20%, then the goof-up in providing answer keys might have been missed altogether.

Goof ups are, of course, nothing new for the board.Earlier, it was forced to revise its answer key for Semester III on three different occasions, after major errors surfaced in the answer key.On all such occasions, the board's subject experts failed to detect the errors and the revisions took place only because students and teachers pointed out the mistakes, said Diwan Balubhai School principal Kirit Joshi.

Sources in the board said this year the board had given typed answer keys to the agency tasked with checking the paper, as the examination was conducted through optical mark reader. The board, instead of taking its own officials to task, has once again started blaming the agency for the goof up. The board officials said that instead of using the answer key of semester I, the agency had checked the papers with the answer key of semester III. Sources said that it was the duty of board officials to verify the typed answer key , and later on verify marks.But they had failed in their duty.

IIT-Gandhinagar Develops An Eye For Stroke

AHMEDABAD: 29 oct 2015

Stroke has left heart attack behind in terms of morbidity. Every three seconds, somebody suffers a stroke worldwide.

India has a major contribution to the high number of stroke cases, with 3,800 patients every day . In such a scenario, IIT-Gandhinagar has developed a technique that not only provides an eye-gaze based diagnostic and prognostic tool but also operant conditioning for post-stroke therapy .

Funded by the Indian and French governments, the invention, called SmartEye, relates to a system for diagnosis and therapy of a person suffering from psychomotor symptoms. As participants look into visual simulations, an eye tracker detects anomalies in fixa tion and blinking patterns.Special gaze features convey abnormalities in graphical displays.

"Visual problems due to brain injury are often overlooked during initial treatment, lengthening rehabilitation period. Our cost-effective system uses quantitative interpretation from images of the eye to identify gaze-related indices as biomarkers of stroke. A patient is asked to look towards a slowly moving visual stimulus on the computer screen, and an integrated web-camera looks in the patient's eyes to capture gaze-related indices as biomarkers of stroke condition," said IIT-Gn assistant professor Uttama Lahiri, who worked with Dr Anirban Dutta (from INRIA, France) and Dr Abhijit Das (Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata).

Central University Of Gujarat Hosts Meet On Education Policy

AHMEDABAD: 12 oct. 2015

A detailed one-day grassroots consultation for a new education policy aimed at 'Improving State Public Universities' was held at the Central University of Gujarat (CUG) in Gandhinagar. The seven-hour discussion involved close to 50 vice chancellors from across the country. These consultations are part of a participative exercise ahead of the proposed new education policy, for which countrywide deliberations are being held on 20 different themes to improve higher education and 13 themes on improving school education.

Right from issues related to interference from the ministry of human resource development (MHRD) in the working of a university, to designing a curriculum, maintaining autonomy and improving accountability in state universities, all were discussed threadbare. "How many of these suggestions will be incorporated remains to be seen. But the whole process seems to be moving towards strengthening the case for a common Universities Act, to be implemented in every state in the country. A one-day deliberation is not enough to address the gamut of issues affecting our education system," said a senior vice chancellor at the meet.

While Maj Gen Dilawar Singh, director of Nehru Yuva Kendra told TOI, "I suggested three major changes, including training VCs with respect to managing HR and finance for better functioning. Also a national level committee should be formed for selection of VCs."

Minister for education, Bhupendrasinh Chdasama told TOI, "The gross enrollment ratio of Gujarat is 21 while that of the country is 21, which is healthy. Also, the suggestions given by various VCs have been documented and will be sent to the Centre for deliberation."

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Rs 1K Crore Package Echoes CM's Scholarship Scheme

GANDHINAGAR: 26 Sep 2015

The much-hyped Rs 1,000-crore package announced by chief minister Anandiben Patel to placate Patidars and other non-quota castes seems to have repeated many aspects of the scholarship scheme announced by he CM in her maiden budget n July 2015.

Majority of the fee incen ives announced in the economic package are, in fact, mere repetitions of what the CM has already promised to bright students belonging to poor and middle class fam lies in her `Mukhya Mantri Shri Scholarship Yojana'.

The following pledges govt to pay 50% fee or up to Rs 2 lakh per annum to students admitted in self-financed medical colleges," and "govt to pay 50% fee up to Rs 50,000 per annum for engineering and other professional courses; Rs 25,000 for diploma engineering courses" -have been borrowed directly rom the Scholarship Scheme.

Interestingly , like the Mukhya Mantri Swavalambi Yojana, the CM Scholarship Scheme too has the upper income limit of Rs 4.5 lakh per annum for students to be eligible for the benefits. This `fresh' income criterion was declared by the CM on Thursday when she said that she does not want four-wheeler owners to benefit from this scheme at the cost of the poor.

A key new aspect of the Swavalambi Yojana is that it has increased the number of students who will be able to benefit from government largesse. While the Scholarship Scheme aims to give benefits to science students in the top four percentile, the Swavalamban Scheme extends the benefits to all students who have over 90 percentile.In the general stream, the Scholarship Scheme gave benefits only to those in the top one percentile.

Some other fresh aspects of the Swavalambi Scheme is benefits to diploma engineering students, grants for hostel and books and higher age limit for government jobs.

Observers say that by increasing the ambit of the scholarship scheme to include 90% of the students, the government has benefited only 7000-odd students who seek admission in engineering and medical courses after Class XII.

A senior official said that education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma had announced the Scholarship Scheme on July 28 after the government resolution that was issued on July 23, 2014.The state government had even launched a new website.

2532 Seats Vacant In BBA, BCA, BCOM Colleges In Gujarat University

AHMEDABAD: 1 Sep 2015

There are about 2532 seats vacant in the, Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Computer Application and Bachelor of commerce colleges in the city.

The Gujarat University has now decided to have two day fifth round of admission for those students who are left without admission. The admission will be conducted from Tuesday.

The Gujarat University had earlier decided to have online centralized admission for the commerce colleges in Ahmedabad and for bachelor of business administration and bachelor of computer application courses offered by colleges affiliated to the university.

However, the Gujarat University in order to fill up the self-financed colleges had decided to go in for four rounds of admission for the BCom and other courses. But even after four round there were several seats which have remained vacant.

The Gujarat University has already declared the list of vacant seats on its website and has askled the students to fill up their forms again for the fresh and the fifth round of admission. The forms will be available from Tuesday. According to GU officials that there are 542 seats vacant in Bachelor of Business Administration, 361 in Bachelor of Computer Application and 1221 seats vacant for the Bachelor of commerce in Gujarati medium colleges and another 408 seats are vacant in English medium commerce colleges.

The GU has asked the colleges to accept the form individually and prepare a merit list and send the same to the Gujarat University. The GU has made it clear that the admission to these students should be given only after the GU approves the merit list.

Ahmedabad's Dental College HoD Caught Taking Bribe

AHMEDABAD: 22 Aug 2015

A team of state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) trapped a head of department at Government Dental College and Hospital on Civil Hospital campus on Thursday.

Investigators said that the complainants, three Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) students, had shelled out Rs 20,000 each to pay to the accused so as not to face harassment.

According to ACB officials, an MDS student had approached the bureau with complaint against Babu S Parmar, professor and head of department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Parmar was not only the head but also guide for their masters course project.

"As per the complaint, Parmar used to get the students do his personal work, get them pay his various bills including phone and fuel and also used to get snacks and meals on their expenses. They used to comply as Parmar's displeasure could hamper their marks or result into delay in practical work assignments and assessment. However, the demands reached a new height recently when seniors told the three students that the professor wanted a high-end smartphone for his birthday on August 24," said an ACB official.

When the students showed inability to purchase the phone, they decided to give money instead. It was at this stage that they informed ACB. A team of ACB led by inspector R N Patel accompanied students when they handed over Rs 20,000 each at Parmar's chamber in the college on Thursday afternoon.

"Further questioning is on in the case. It is possible that other students might also come forward to register complaint. We have also approached the college authorities to ascertain whether they knew about the practice," said Patel.

Ahmedabad's Dental College HoD Caught Taking Bribe

AHMEDABAD: 22 Aug 2015

A team of state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) trapped a head of department at Government Dental College and Hospital on Civil Hospital campus on Thursday.

Investigators said that the complainants, three Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) students, had shelled out Rs 20,000 each to pay to the accused so as not to face harassment.

According to ACB officials, an MDS student had approached the bureau with complaint against Babu S Parmar, professor and head of department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Parmar was not only the head but also guide for their masters course project.

"As per the complaint, Parmar used to get the students do his personal work, get them pay his various bills including phone and fuel and also used to get snacks and meals on their expenses. They used to comply as Parmar's displeasure could hamper their marks or result into delay in practical work assignments and assessment. However, the demands reached a new height recently when seniors told the three students that the professor wanted a high-end smartphone for his birthday on August 24," said an ACB official.

When the students showed inability to purchase the phone, they decided to give money instead. It was at this stage that they informed ACB. A team of ACB led by inspector R N Patel accompanied students when they handed over Rs 20,000 each at Parmar's chamber in the college on Thursday afternoon.

"Further questioning is on in the case. It is possible that other students might also come forward to register complaint. We have also approached the college authorities to ascertain whether they knew about the practice," said Patel.

Ahmedabad's Dental College HoD Caught Taking Bribe

AHMEDABAD: 22 Aug 2015

A team of state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) trapped a head of department at Government Dental College and Hospital on Civil Hospital campus on Thursday.

Investigators said that the complainants, three Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) students, had shelled out Rs 20,000 each to pay to the accused so as not to face harassment.

According to ACB officials, an MDS student had approached the bureau with complaint against Babu S Parmar, professor and head of department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Parmar was not only the head but also guide for their masters course project.

"As per the complaint, Parmar used to get the students do his personal work, get them pay his various bills including phone and fuel and also used to get snacks and meals on their expenses. They used to comply as Parmar's displeasure could hamper their marks or result into delay in practical work assignments and assessment. However, the demands reached a new height recently when seniors told the three students that the professor wanted a high-end smartphone for his birthday on August 24," said an ACB official.

When the students showed inability to purchase the phone, they decided to give money instead. It was at this stage that they informed ACB. A team of ACB led by inspector R N Patel accompanied students when they handed over Rs 20,000 each at Parmar's chamber in the college on Thursday afternoon.

"Further questioning is on in the case. It is possible that other students might also come forward to register complaint. We have also approached the college authorities to ascertain whether they knew about the practice," said Patel.

Ahmedabad's Dental College HoD Caught Taking Bribe

AHMEDABAD: 22 Aug 2015

A team of state anti-corruption bureau (ACB) trapped a head of department at Government Dental College and Hospital on Civil Hospital campus on Thursday.

Investigators said that the complainants, three Master of Dental Surgery (MDS) students, had shelled out Rs 20,000 each to pay to the accused so as not to face harassment.

According to ACB officials, an MDS student had approached the bureau with complaint against Babu S Parmar, professor and head of department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. Parmar was not only the head but also guide for their masters course project.

"As per the complaint, Parmar used to get the students do his personal work, get them pay his various bills including phone and fuel and also used to get snacks and meals on their expenses. They used to comply as Parmar's displeasure could hamper their marks or result into delay in practical work assignments and assessment. However, the demands reached a new height recently when seniors told the three students that the professor wanted a high-end smartphone for his birthday on August 24," said an ACB official.

When the students showed inability to purchase the phone, they decided to give money instead. It was at this stage that they informed ACB. A team of ACB led by inspector R N Patel accompanied students when they handed over Rs 20,000 each at Parmar's chamber in the college on Thursday afternoon.

"Further questioning is on in the case. It is possible that other students might also come forward to register complaint. We have also approached the college authorities to ascertain whether they knew about the practice," said Patel.